e-Repositories
Institutional repository is a digital hosting solution - usually designed for academic entites, capable of managing/ presenting complex activities of the institutions including the publication of open journals.
Within the Institute libraries there is limited space to store the huge amount of printed content, currently available. As a consequence, the materials available for teaching and learning are mostly digital nowadays. Digital hosting implies designed devices, which require much smaller space than the physical space needed for archiving books.
An academic repository allows students, teachers, researchers and academic staff to easily keep their digital documents. In this way, stored content becomes available to people who want to read it, either inside or outside the Institute. Accordingly, another reason in favor of the digital content is the fact that digital content is easy to be stored, used and shared in academic media, compared to printed content.
Finally, an important consideration supporting the digital movement is the cost of electronic journals. Academic research from universities and specialized institutions are under development, generating thus more and more results that need to be (at least in part) disseminated.
Benefits for researchers and institutions using a digital repository:
Enables both metadata and the intellectual object to be stored in the same place, in a persistent manner
A fast access to deposits, which are easy to reuse for new lectures, research, dissemination, etc.
Easier for data/ publications to be included in international databases measuring research quality, which increases research visibility and
Allows for external confirmation/ validation of research data
Type of documents that can be stored in academic repository:
Electronic journals/ articles
Books and book chapters
Bibliographies
PhDs Theses